Dynamics
by K.Scamm
Summary: An incredibly shy and suppressed beta, Castiel Novak, meets surprisingly friendly alpha Dean Winchester, and of course he makes Castiel want to be himself. -Family, Hurt & Comfort, and a little Romance, Rated M for future chapters, Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics, Dean/Castiel, brotherly Dean/Sam, light Sam/Castiel, Gabriel/OFC, family intimacy OFC/Castiel Sam/OFC/Castiel-
1. Chapter 1

Castiel Novak wasn't particularly different from other guys in his year. He was average height, fairly slender in build, but unlike any other guy the same age, he was taking suppressants for heat. The pills were usually daily for when you were in heat – which happened twice a year – but Castiel was on a monthly pill. The monthly pill was more effective at supressing heat, without making you bitchy and aggressive, yet more expensive, no problem for his family though, rich, and willing to do anything to avoid the shame of having a beta for a son.

Male betas weren't unheard of, but they were about as common as female alphas, and equally as rejected by society. Although there were some countries in Europe that welcomed them, even had altered some laws and made new ones pertaining to what would be a unique situation otherwise.

So of course he was beyond horrified when, in the middle of an Ancient History lesson, there was a deep throb just behind his naval. Without thinking, he grabbed his things and bolted from the classroom.

Dean bobbed his head and sang along to the Led Zeppelin song on his ancient cassette-tape Walkman as he picked up litter from the college grounds, it wasn't a glamorous job, but this and his job at the garage was enough to keep Sammy in books for school, and keep them both clothed and fed, with just enough left to afford the daily suppressants when they needed them.

Once it was full he tied up the trash bag and added it to the cart. He'd changed the bags in all the trashcans on campus, picked up the majority of the litter and fixed the air-con in the science lab with the hot lab-tech chic watching his every move and fanning herself with papers. She'd given him her number with the promise that she'd just _have_ to find _some _way to repay him. As he pushed the cart round back – one foot on the cart and pushing him and the cart along with the other, using it as if it was some over-large scooter – to the dumpsters, and started to pile the bags into the blue one, a scent – brought in on the rare wind this excruciatingly hot summer – caught his nose.

It was a beta, only just going into heat, and when Dean sniffed the air again he couldn't catch a whiff of alpha anywhere, so he decided it was safe to investigate. He crept round to the back of the building via the alley where the dumpsters were, and stopped when he caught sight of a guy sitting back against the wall. He had dark hair and blue eyes; he was visibly sweating and trying to pull the knot of his tie loose, but only making it tighter in the process.

'A sweater-vest and tie in this whether, really dude?' was Dean's first thought until he remembered what he could smell and he pitied the poor guy. Not only was he a male beta but he'd clearly not taken his suppressant in time and was now suffering the early throws of heat. "You alright buddy?" he asked, crouching next to him. In his heat, the guy could probably smell the alpha in him, and it should make him do exactly the opposite of make him flinch away and cower in fear, but he did just that, begging him 'please don't' and 'I don't want to'. Dean had never really thought about all the shit male betas had to go through in their heat, especially if they encountered an alpha, because they'd happily _let _themselves get raped they were so high on heat; there were stories about it in the papers all the time if you read cover-to-cover any cases virtually thrown out of court because there was no proof the beta-male wasn't begging for it, and Dean could only guess that that was what put the fear of God into this poor guy. "Oh hey no," he said in a gentler voice than last time "I'm not gonna touch you, I was just checking you were okay"

"Y-You're not?" he raised his head a little, and it looked as if they were about the same age. But he didn't look anything like the looks-like-a-girl stereotype of a beta-male.

"O'course not, I have awesome self-control" he joked, although it was true, and it drew a weak half-laugh from the guy "So what's your name?"

"Castiel" he replied, straining a little and scrunching his eyes shut

"Well Castiel, I'm gonna clear off and leave you to your thing," he said, knowing that the presence of an alpha wouldn't help him any "but you should probably go home before an alpha with less self-control gets a whiff of you"

"Is it that strong?" Castiel asked weakly, flushing redder from embarrassment this time, looking ashamed.

"You've got no idea have you? ..." Dean found it hard to believe that he didn't know anything about how strong pheromone scents could get, but he decided that that was a conversation for later if they ever got to have it. "You really should get outta here then, go home"

"Can't…" he uttered, just holding himself back from taking a sniff of Dean, so Dean backed out of the guy's space a little bit more. "… They don't wanna know"

Dean thought for a moment "Have you uh- got anyone you can go to?" he asked, they both knew what he really meant, or at least he hoped they both knew. Castiel shook his head again, getting worse by the second. Dean knew he should leave him, but he couldn't leave the poor guy to suffer, and to possibly allot worse.

"You'll have to touch yourself" said Dean, reluctantly, recalling his talk through a door with Sam during his younger brother's first heat

Instantly the guy started stammering "But- but I've never-"

"You've never…" Dean took a tight grip on his own thigh, digging his nails, and taking a deep breath, strangely turned on by such a virginal guy "You'll kinda have to, or it'll get worse" he said, managing to keep the aroused husk from his voice.

Timidly, Castiel shook his head, curling his knees up to his chest. He couldn't… he just couldn't.

"There's gotta be something I can do, someone I can call?" he said, despite the two looking exactly nothing in common aside from the sense of innocence they radiated, this kid reminded him too much of Sammy to just leave him here, like he's sure he'd do with anyone else.

"Katie…" he shuddered out "…my phone" Castiel remembered something Kate had told him after his first heat, about why girls grouped together all the time. Despite the lack of detail of what he wanted him to do, Dean clicked on and searched the kid's bag for a phone, when he found it he scrolled through it to find a 'Katie'. All of the contacts were full names, and alphabetised by last name so he struggled to find 'McCarthy, Kate' which was the closest guess. He pressed call.

Within seconds there was an answer.

"_Cas, honey, what is it? Are you okay_?" answered a soft, concerned, woman's voice. Clearly he didn't call her often.

"Hi – um – actually this is Dean Winchester"

"_Winchester?_" she cut in

"Yeah, I've – uh – I've got… _Cas_" he thinks that's what she called him "here with me, and he uh…" Dean wasn't sure how to phrase it "he needs you to come pick him up."

She was either smart, or cared too much for 'Cas' to mess around asking him to explain what was wrong. "I'll be there in five" she said "tell him to hang in there" Dean told her where to find them, she repeated it back to him and the line went dead.

When she hung up, Dean put Cas' phone back in his bag and passed on Kate's message. Cas gave what he supposed could have been a weak smile as his tightened his grip on his knees.

In exactly three minutes Kate was jogging up the alley way towards him. "Dean Winchester?" she asked, slightly breathless, and he nodded, thumbing behind him and she rushed straight past to find Cas. He'd left Cas' side before his self-control collapsed, and favoured staying round the corner from him, and finish tossing the trash bags into the dumpster. A few moments later, with their arms round one another, Cas and Kate rounded the corner and rushed right past him, Kate throwing him a quick 'thank you'.

As they left, Cas cast his eyes back and gave him a look that put a knot in Dean's stomach.


	2. Chapter 2

**AU: Contains spelling/grammar corrections, sorry about the mistakes before or the ones I still haven't noticed. Thanks for all the followers, I've never had so many in the space of three days x**

Cas lay between Kate's knees, head resting shamelessly against her ever-comfortable chest as they lounged on the sofa in the attic-conversation/Kate and Gabe's rent-free apartment, watching daytime TV. Times like this, when no one else was in the house, when it was just him and Kate, when he didn't have to be ashamed to be a beta-male, he was tempted to switch to the daily, as-required heat-suppressants so he could just hang out with her for the week, unbothered by the throws of heat when in the company of a fellow beta.

He would _never_ be able to even begin to guess how Gabriel of all people landed himself such a wonderful woman, and no one would be able to probably, not without extensive scientific research. But Cas was so glad he did. Kate was the best friend he could have asked for.

Kate and Gabriel had been together for eight years now, ever since half-way through their first year of high school and Gabriel's months of endless perusing and exhausting his best pick-up tactics had paid off. Now they shared the converted attic of the unnecessarily huge Novak house. Kate had been around during Cas' first heat when he was thirteen, making him a late-starter, but still mortified about being a beta-male and Kate had calmed him down.

That was when she'd first explained that when beta's grouped together their urges in heat were staved off, which is why girls almost always moved round in groups, and beta-males naturally favoured the company of girls. She'd promised that they could always hang out when he went into heat; despite her promise, the idea had died with Cas' admittance to his father that he wasn't an alpha, and he'd been forced into the stronger monthly pills. Only Gabriel knew how utterly furious she was with Mr Novak for being so homophobic.

His father's complete denial and rejection about having a beta for a son had led Cas to completely force it out of himself, even tried dating one or two girls from his class in an attempt to train himself into being an alpha. But no matter how hard he tried he was still, fundamentally, a beta, and girls couldn't help but treat him like their best friend. So maybe for one month out of the year he forgot to take his pill? So what? It didn't matter if nobody found out. 'Nobody' however, never included Kate, Gabriel, or his other brother Balthazar, because they didn't seem to mind.

Kate stroked his hair absent-mindedly as he inhaled the pheromones that clung to her skin, neither of them caring that his face was in her cleavage. She smelt of Gabriel, she always smelt of Gabriel, but it still didn't cover up the heavenly scent she had on her skin.

Suddenly, from nowhere, Castiel plucked up the courage to ask the question that had been playing on his mind all day now "Does getting knotted hurt?"

Kate flinched back, causing him to lift is head from the comfort of her breasts and look at her "Where the hell did that come from?" she asked, sounding a little panicked if the small quiver in 'hell' was anything to go by. Castiel had asked her hundreds of questions about everything, ranging from sex to 'that book she was reading the other week' so why knotting seemed like a sensitive subject he didn't know, and got the feeling that it was too personal to ask.

He shrugged and rested his head again "I was just curious, because today I…"

"It's natural for beta's to want a knot in heat" she soothed, a little calmer than before, settling back down with him.

"It's not just that…" he sighed "but that guy… I wanted him to watch while I – while I touched myself"

He didn't hear so much as he felt her chuckle vibrate through her chest "I think you wanted him to do a little more than that sweetie" she said, not really teasing him, jut encouraging him not to lie to himself. He buried his face in her chest as he mumbled 'maybe'. "Did you want _him_ to fuck you or did you just want to be fucked?" she asked, he stayed still in silent contemplation, when he didn't answer she carried on "Okay, think about it this way. Did you picture a cock pounding into your ass, or did you picture him, all hot a sweaty, groaning your name as you rode him like a horny little-"

"The second one." He cut in quickly, before she could go into even more detail, because she was teasing him a little, not like that was new however.

"Aww" she cooed, pinching his cheek lightly "I reckon you should give it a go then"

Cas pushed himself up quite quickly "What?"

She shrugged casually "ask him out"

He slowly recoiled to the other end of the sofa "But I –I don't even know-"

"Dean Winchester" she told him "I see his kid brother in the library all the time, he's got nothing but the highest praises for his big brother" Kate was a Librarian at the local library, and sometimes it seemed like she knew everyone Cas could name.

Cas gritted his teeth in thought "I dunno…" he mumbled

Kate nudged him with her foot "Give it a go" she pushed, "And if he says no you're too good for him anyway" they both smiled and laughed a little

"Only if you talk to Gabe" he bargained, because he knew that the two of them – though clearly very close, and still intimate with one another – needed to talk about whatever had happened between them, because it needed to be sorted.

For a moment, Kate froze, before nodding her head I agreement "Alright then, but you better damn well try your hardest"

Cas took a deep breath when he finally saw the grounds keeper from yesterday, he was mopping the floor outside the guys' bathrooms, and walked straight up to him. His heat-suppressant had kicked in now, so he wasn't in trouble of a repeat of yesterday.

Dean sniffed and looked up as Cas approached, and he took off his headphones. But before he could speak, Cas rattled off into a well-rehearsed speech. "I just wanted to say – uh – thanks for yesterday and if you could, you know, keep it to yourself though? But still, thanks… allot for… that. And – uh – I was – um – wondering if you'd like to go for a – uh – burger or something? Later that is, not now, because I have classes and you're probably busy"

"Uh – no problem, and of course not, I wouldn't, and – uh – I'm actually busy later… sorry"

Cas didn't relax at all despite his promise that he wouldn't tell anyone. "No that's – uh – that's fine, of course, whatever. I'll – I'll see you whenever then" he said as casually as he could, turning on his heel to leave before he was stopped by a firm hand. He turned back to Dean.

"I'm free tomorrow" he offered, making Castiel's insides flutter a little, "Meet me by the front gate at say… 8:30?" Cas just nodded, unable to form words or suppress the goofy half-grin he had on his face.

The next day, the moment his shift ended, he raced home to shower and change for what he wouldn't admit was a date. After his shower, he stood in front of the mirror wearing his best jeans and boots, holding up one shirt, then the other, unable to make up his mind. Eventually he caught sight of Sammy in the mirror, he was watching him from the doorway. When the kid had turned fifteen, he'd had one hell of a growth spurt, suddenly going from short and chubby to tall and wiry, so he had a constantly under-fed look about him.

"What?" he asked bluntly, and Sam just tilted his head and continued to observe him

"Where're you going?" he asked cautiously, his voice didn't squeak hilariously any more so Dean didn't have much to quip at him with, but Dean had sure as hell taken the piss when it had.

"Out" Dean answered vaguely, going back to deciding on which shirt to wear

"Go with the dark blue one." said Sam casually, and without admitting the kid was probably right, Dean put away the green shirt and pulled on the dark blue t-shirt "Out where?" he pushed as Dean started on his hair

"Just out"

Sammy wouldn't give up that easily, although the stoic look on his face made him seem less nosy, and just curious. "With a girl?"

Now, Dean couldn't outright lie to his brother, but he could withhold information.

"Or is it a guy?" Sam asked, stepping into the room to put Dean's hair right after the onslaught of his slightly shaking hands. Damn his brother's perceptiveness.

Dean let Sammy fix his hair, trying to phrase it right. He was far from ashamed to find himself attracted to this guy, but he wasn't sure if he could really call it a date, because Cas was trying to keep his beta-male side a secret.

Sammy chuckled "Just gimmie a heads-up if you're bringing him back"

"Oh dude no, I don't think..." Dean had said it without realising it, but when he'd been on dates before (most of them being with girls, rarely more than once) he'd damn well planned to get them into bed. "I don't think he's like that" he finished "he's... real smart, doesn't look like he'd mess around"

"He cute?"

"Oh hell yeah" he gave a kind of dazed grin and he thought about those blue eyes, and good god did he want to see them blown open with arousal, his pale cheeks flushed and hear his voice completely sex-wrecked.

Sam raised his eyebrows, it might be a guy he was going on a date this time, but even with no guarantee of sex Dean was still eager to go.

Castiel hadn't expected his father to be home so early; usually he was back late and gone before anyone else had woken up. So even though he'd been ready for an hour, and he was meeting Dean in fifteen minuets, his father was sat in his chair, reading the paper, and Cas had no way of getting out the house unseen. So instead he stared down from his window, trying to see any way he could climb down.

That was exactly when Balthazar decided to appear at his shoulder, scaring Cas half to death with a simple 'boo'. Cas punched him in the shoulder for his troubles. "What the hell're you doing?" he snapped

"I could ask you the same thing" Balthazar responded coolly

"None of your business" said Cas, closing the window carefully

Balthazar grinned knowingly "Come on, it's easy climbing down from my window" he said with a wink

Kate glanced over her shoulder at Mr Novak, then to her left at Gabriel, who was drying the dishes she was washing from dinner. "Sweetie, I wanna talk to you about something" she whispered

Gabriel glanced over at her, recognising the look on her face, and quickly at his father "We'll do it tomorrow, when Dad's at-"

"No Gabe. Now." she fiddled with the dish-cloth for a moment, watching the dirty water circle down the drain, then added "...or I'll just have to leave" Gabriel didn't say anything as he stopped packing the plates away into the cupboard for a moment. "I might not go into heat any more but... God knows I still want you" she whispered, but not standing any closer. He didn't say anything as he finished putting the plates away either, he just took her hand, and led her up the stairs. "Come on" he said gently

Kate followed after him obediently. When they reached the stairs that led up to the attic, she heard one of the bedroom doors click shut behind them, but didn't care because she could smell a change on him that – ever since they'd first started dating – she come to associate with him getting possessive, and she knew that meant she was getting fucked into the mattress.

She was almost right.

The moment they got into their room, Gabriel grabbed her by her hips, lifted her off the ground and shoved her up against the wall. "You're mine" he growled in her ear "Like hell you're going to leave me" his fingertips pressed hard enough against her hips to leave bruises as he nipped at her ear, making her give the smallest of whimpers. He kissed her furiously, hardly stopping for long enough to even let her breathe.

He was in heat. Of course Kate knew this, what kind of girlfriend would she be if she didn't? But he always kept his distance from her during his heats; he didn't want to hurt her, and even suppressants couldn't keep you off a willing beta, especially one with a mouth that was the embodiment of lustful sin.

Unlike betas, alphas only went into heat once a year, and once they had a mate they usually became synchronised, going into heat at the same time, and became able to knot their mate as long as one of them was in heat.

Kate could feel his hard-on pressed against her thigh, and she wanted it like a fish needs water. But unbuttoning his jeans seemed to snap him out of the testosterone fuelled need to finally mark her and he pushed her hand away. "Stop" he said, gritting his teeth "I can't..."

He was so on-edge Kate didn't have to say a single word to get her possessive, greedy alpha-male back. She just dropped to her knees, slowly undid his zipper, before nuzzling her nose against his crotch, mouthing through his shorts against his cock, inhaling his heady scent and looking up at him with her best beta-eyes.

Castiel smiled as Dean continued his story "-then she turned to him and said 'how could you even think about interrupting us like that?' and he just goes 'oh, I'm sorry...' then leaves!" Cas shook with laughter

"So even-though he'd just caught you with his girlfriend, _he _apologised?" confirmed Cas

"Yup!" grinned Dean, Sammy had rolled his eyes when he'd told him, and the guys at the shop were more interested in what he'd been doing with the girl before-hand, not that neither of them hadn't found it just as funny, but being able to make Cas laugh like this gave him a warm feeling, not to mention his smile just about stopped his heart.

"So you've been with a couple of girls in the past then?" asked Cas innocently, pulling his eyes down to his meal, occasionally flicking up to look at Dean

Dean leaned back on the bench seat of the alcove they had "A couple yeah, one or two guys too, but... mainly one night stands... I think they were all one night stands actually..."

"Oh..." Castiel's heart sunk in his chest

Instantly Dean realised Cas had taken it the wrong way "Not that you are, of course not," he said quickly "You..." he caught Castiel's eye as the thinner man raised his head, and Dean was so sure that he was going to go into cardiac arrest some point this evening, the things Cas was making his heart do. "You're..." he tried again, but the words were gone, and his mouth had gone dry, still grasping for words, he watched Cas reach out across the table and trail his fingertips along the hard line of his jaw, leaving a soft tingling in its wake.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: T****hank you to everyone who's reading this, and thank you for all the reviews and follows I've received thus far, I love you all, have some virtual Muffins :)**

Cas jumped out of his skin when the door to the diner practically crashed open when what looked like a good third of the College Soccer team burst in, bantering and jeering with each other as they placed their orders. Much to Dean's distaste it made Cas pull back into himself, but a moment later he was recognised.

"Cas-ti-el!" roared one of the team, saying his name like it was being chanted from the bleachers. And Castiel changed completely.

He jumped out of his seat, an almost wolfish grin on his face as he greeted the team with manly hugs, high-fives and punches to the arm "Haha! Guys, what're you doing here?"

"Getting something to eat _obviously_" laughed one of them, earning laughter from the rest, even from Cas, although it wasn't anything like the way he'd been laughing with Dean moments ago

"Hey Cas, who's your bitch?" asked one of them, giving Dean a cheeky wink. Dean was about to rise to it, but Castiel handled it

"Woah guys, he's my friend! Can't a guy have a meal with his friend?" he protested, the out-of-character grin still on his face.

"Not you Cas, you _BEAST!_"

Dean tried to supress laughter as the rowdy group started up a chant of _beast-beast-beast-beast-beast_. After this went about twice-over, one of the guys stopped them, he was by far the friendliest-looking of the group, the least rowdy, but still that wasn't saying much. The guy put and arm round Castiel's shoulders and turned them to face Dean

"Buddy" he said to Dean "Play your cards right and you are in for one hell of a night, because this guy" he patted Cas firmly on the chest "has a hulluva lotta stamina best damn striker I've ever played with."

He waited for some kind of response from Dean, and for a moment Cas panicked, he had no idea what he wanted to happen right now. He didn't want to put Dean out there as a beta (which he wasn't) but he wasn't ready to be outed yet, and he wasn't sure weather to breathe a sigh of relief or laugh at what Dean said next.

"Oh, is that right darlin'?" he purred in a southern accent, reclining back in his seat in the most submissive way he could muster, making the team cat-call and laugh.

"Oh hell yeah" one of the guys continued "When we're all dead from suicide runs he's still goin'!" he boasted, typical wing-man style "He'd not even breakin' a sweat after thirty!"

Dean continued to talk in his southern drawl, pulling himself out his seat in a slightly feminine very sultry way, he grabbed hold of Cas by his second-best casual tie "We best not waste time then if you're gonna go all night honey" he purred, and proceeded to lead Cas from the diner by his tie as if it was some kind of dog collar. The team erupted into laughter, cheers and wolf-whistles behind them.

When they got to Dean's car – which was by far one of the coolest cars Cas had ever seen – in the small car park round the back of the diner, Dean let go of Castiel's tie. Castiel didn't even notice it was crooked as he begged Dean's forgiveness.

"I'm so sorry about that," Cas rushed, he still couldn't believe Dean had pretended to be a beta for him "I didn't expect to see them here and I would have-"

"Woah hey," Dean held up his hands "You're not comfortable coming out to your friends yet, that's cool, but there's only so many times I'm willing to do that in public" he joked, although completely serious. He took a step or two closer to Cas and straightened his tie with gentle tugs and twists "Although..." he thought for a moment, straightening out the guys clothes, just for the excuse to touch him "I'm willing to try bottoming if that's what turns you on"

Dean strolled round to the drivers side and got in the car, leaving Cas weak-kneed and plagued with images of an incredibly hot, incredibly submissive Dean, open-mouthed and on his knees, openly begging to be split open on Castiel's cock. As he drifted off into his fantasy, Dean called at him impatiently to get in the car.

When Cas finally managed to get the door open and drop into the passenger seat, Dean started the engine and set off towards the outskirts of town. He knew exactly where he wanted to take him now.

After a few minuets completely devoid of Castiel's nervous babble, Dean glanced over at his slightly glazed-over expression for a moment before speaking "Did I break you?" he wondered if that suggestion had maybe been way too much for the guy that didn't even freaking _masturbate_.

Cas wet his lips a little "No – um, _ahem_ – I'm fine"

A dirty smirk crept onto Dean's face, knowing exactly was Cas was thinking about "You picturing it?" he asked teasingly

No matter how hard he tried, at that moment Cas couldn't fully over-power the flirtacious, 'fuck-me-now' part of his brain so instead of denying it... "Yeah I am" he said, as Dean pulled to a stop at the end of a dirt road that was in the middle of completely open fields, far enough away from the main road that there was no noise. Dean cut the engine, lay his arm across the back of the seat and leaned towards Cas

"What're you picturing?" he asked, twisting their fingers together, then he smirked as Cas fumbled for words. He quickly wondered if he could ever get this guy talking dirty to him. He leaned in closer and lowered his voice to a deep whisper "_Are you picturing me, bent over at the waist, displaying my ass to you? Holding myself open for you? Showing you my sweet little pucker? Preparing myself with my fingers, already dripping wet for you? Moaning your name and begging for your cock?_" he asked, slowly slipping a hand up to Castiel's waist, feeling him shiver beautifully.

"_Not... not exactly that no..._" he managed to breathe against Dean's jaw, practically buzzing at the almost-skin-on-skin contact.

"_Shame..._" sighed Dean, the tip of his nose just brushing the hinge of Castiel's jaw as he rose up a little to whisper right into Castiel's ear "_Because that's how I'm picturing you_"

Castiel let out a small whine of a whimper. Instantly flushing red at the pitiful sound, but Dean let out a very low, almost silent growl of arousal, slowly crowding Cas into the far end of the seat, just waiting for any sign that it was too much for the guy. He certainly wasn't expecting Cas to drop his head back and expose his neck to him in one of the most submissive – yet fully clothed – actions, his nimble fingers carding through Dean's hair at the back of his head as the older man couldn't help but take the offer in front of him, pressing an open-mouthed kiss against his neck, deeply inhaling the pheromones radiating from the spot just below his ear, feeling the vibrations of Cas' moans and whimpers against his lips.

When Dean broke away Castiel whined at the loss of his body pressed against him, but Dean, slightly out of breath, insisted that they got out the car.

"As lovely as this is, and as freakin... _heavenly_ as the noises you make are, this isn't the reason I brought you out here" he reached behind Cas to open his door and herd him out of it

"Are you sure?" said Cas, just as breathless, dragging himself out of the car, only to lean against it as he took in lungfuls of fresh air in an attempt to clear his head. "'Cause hell if I mind"

"I am sure, I actually wanted you to see this" Dean smiled took Castiel's hand, twining their fingers together without a thought, and pulled him round to the front of the car. He easily vaulted the picket fence surrounding the field, and all but lifted Cas over after him "You don't mind lying on the ground do you?" asked Dean. Normally Cas would have very much minded the grass stains he'd get from doing so, but he just didn't seem to care, so he shook his head dumbly. "Good" he said, stopping and abruptly collapsing back on the longish grass, patting the space next to him when Cas didn't immediately follow. "Come on" he coaxed.

Cas took off his jacket and set it down on the ground, lying down far more carefully than Dean had. He very deliberately left a good few inches between himself and Dean, but Dean noticed and quickly closed the gap, throwing his arm out so Cas could rest his head on his bicep.

When Cas settled down with Dean's firm muscles as a pillow he was in no hurry to complain about, and finally focused on the sky Dean was staring at, he sighed out a 'wow...'. They were far enough away from their little town to have a night-sky free of too much light pollution, because not only could Castiel match up entire constellations, but he could also just about see clusters of far-away galaxies. Castiel almost instantly started rattling off all the constellations, pointing them out and telling their story.

Dean only paid half a mind to what Castiel was saying, which was far more attention than he was giving the sky. Dean, who wasn't even looking at the sky, but rather at Castiel's profile, taking in his long eyelashes that famed piercing blue eyes that shone when he spoke so passionately, the slope of his nose, down into the full curve of his slightly dry-looking lips that he was inwardly beating himself up about having not kissed yet.

Dean brought up a hand to slide along Castiel's jaw, partially in search of invisible-stubble, but mostly another excuse to touch him; the touch only made Cas falter in Ursa Major's story. He rolled onto his side to face Cas – with his arm still pinned under the younger man it was incredibly uncomfortable – and continue trailing his hands over the soft angles of his face, running his thumb over his lips and down the dimple of his chin, then back up the other side of his jaw. Cas closed his eyes and let a soft sigh escape his lips. When Dean sifted his weight again, Cas lifted his head so Dean could free his arm and re-position himself, which was the first thing that made Cas stumble into silence.

"Has anyone ever told you you're gorgeous?" he asked, half leaning over the slightly smaller man, thumb stroking idly at his jaw. "Especially when you get so... know-it-all about something?"

"...No..." Cas tried to make it seem like that compliment wasn't the first he'd ever received about his looks. "...Sorry... would you like me to stop?"

"By all means keep talking" he said, resting his forehead against his "I could listen to you all night..." He wasn't lying, he really could listen to him all night, if it meant he was with him at all. He'd only ever brought one girl here before – Lisa, on their one-year anniversary – he'd been convinced that she'd be his mate for life... she wasn't, ended up she was pregnant with someone else's kid; it took Dean months to get over her. So whatever had possessed him to bring Cas here on their 'first date' as he supposed it now was, clearly had allot of faith in any kind of relationship they might have.


	4. Chapter 4

Cas perched on the hood of the car as he watched Dean struggle with himself.

"Sorry..." he breathed out heavily, facing away from Cas, leaning against the fence "I'm not... I can usually..."

"Control yourself?" suggested Cas, Dean had been perfectly fine (as perfectly fine as a man can be when he's making out 'the hottest piece of ass he's ever seen', to put it in Dean's words... well, the one's he'd used while he was a little bit high off Castiel's heat) for a few minuets until he'd started dry-humping Cas and growling obscene things in his ear. Cas had panicked, head-butted him, and run back to the car. The pain of it must have shocked Dean back to normality for long enough to make him realize what he'd just done "It's alright, I'm the one that's in full-blown heat. Regardless of the suppressants, if you go sniffing at my... neck like you did it's going to affect you... like this" he gestured vaguely towards Dean. Although Kate had explained this all to him, the things you shouldn't let an Alpha do and why, Cas couldn't bring himself to repeat any of it. Dean took one final deep breath before turning back to Cas.

His pupils were less dilated now, and he didn't look like he wanted to devour Cas any more... well maybe he did, but only a little bit. He perched on the hood of the car, keeping a good foot of distance between them "Yeah I suppose that makes sense" he said, still breathing a little heavily.

"Maybe you should just take me home..." suggested Cas "Before uh..."

Dean nodded in reluctant agreement "Yeah, I guess that's best..."

The car journey home was silent, both of them to embarrassed to make conversation like they had before. Cas, still, humiliatingly semi-hard after Dean's promise to make him cum over and over until he was shooting blanks, and then knot him and 'breed you up good... fill you with my pups'; he didn't think Dean had noticed though.

At least, it was complete silence until they got closer to where Cas had said he lived, Dean realised that he had no idea exactly where that road was, and had to ask Cas for directions.

They pulled up round the corner from the house, so Cas could go down the alley at the back of the house, in through the back gate and climb in through Balthazar's window. He turned to Dean before he got out the car, looking directly at where Dean's left hand clung lazily to the steering wheel.

"I really enjoyed tonight" he forced out, feeling like a love-struck little girl "I -uh- hope we could... try this again? Maybe next week when being around me isn't... uncomfortable?"

Dean abruptly grinned, relieved "Yeah, that sounds good." he hesitated a moment "Walk you to your... window?"

"Yeah, alright, I could probably use a leg up anyway" he'd already explained to Dean about what he'd gone through to actually get out the house.

When they stopped outside the back gate to listen for anyone that might be in the garden, even if it was nearly ten at night, and even though it sounded like the garden was clear, they could hear yelling inside.

"We got the right house?" asked Dean cautiously and quietly, seeing the down-trodden and tired look flicker onto Castiel's face.

"Yeah" he sighed, slumping against the wall "Sounds like my uncles, Uriel and Zachariah, and my father of course... oh, and Raphael, my other uncle"

"Big family" was all Dean dared to comment as they waited out the argument. After a while, after a few rises and falls in volume, there was silence, and Dean was about to suggest he goes in now, but Cas shook his head.

"It just means that Gabe's involved now, he hardly ever raises his voice, but it just means that this'll take longer now." just as Cas settled against the wall for a long stay, Dean had an idea

"You could crash on our couch tonight, if you don't wanna..." he gestured towards the house, just as something smashed inside.

Cas sighed "That'd be nice" he agreed, although he did have a vague feeling that it wasn't the safest decision he'd ever made.

Kate lay in bed, facing the window and listening to the silence that had fallen downstairs. Behind her the bedroom door opened, then the mattress shifted with the added weight of Gabriel sitting down on the edge of the bed. Slowly, Kate rolled over to face him. He wasn't looking at her, he just sat on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands, un-moving and silent.

Wordlessly, she rested her head between his shoulders and wrapped her arms round his chest, she felt his hand rest over hers and hold her there tightly.

Kate hummed softly and tunelessly against his back, rubbing her thumb against his chest. After so many arguments in this family, she'd come to learn that there wasn't much at all - if anything - she could say or do to cheer him up, but she'd found that staying close to him helped a little. Although, the way she was sat at the moment was incredibly uncomfortable, so she wrapped her legs round his hips too, resting her feet in his lap. His other hand fell to her feet and picked at the nail varnish on her toes.

They didn't move for a while after that, but eventually Gabriel lifted her hand of his chest and pressed a kiss to it. "I'm gonna take a shower" he muttered

"Want me to join you?" she asked, she wasn't expecting sex tonight, she'd known from the minute Raphael knocked on the front door that Gabriel would just be too rattled for anything by the time they left.

"No thanks" he decided, after a moment of silence, and gently untangled himself from her as she lay back down.

The argument had started with the usual topic, their father.

The old man just seemed to disappear off the face of the earth sometimes and even though he always came back perfectly fine, his four sons - Uriel, Raphael, Zachariah and Gabriel's father - were constantly at odds about him, about weather to put him in a home or just leave him be. And it usually branched into people like Anna and Castiel. Anna, driven mad by the 'Novak family curse' and put into a very discrete, private mental asylum halfway across the country when she turned eighteen, and before then she was locked away 24/7 by her own father - Raphael. And of course Castiel, the only beta-male in the entire family, and that was of the very few beta's that were born into the family at all.

Raphael and Zachariah wanted to put Castiel into what they called 'Military School', in all technical ways of speaking it was, but everyone knew that it was just a correctional facility, most of the brochures quoted some kind of line about 'Drilling out inappropriate behaviour'. As obstinate as Castiel's father was, he wouldn't have one of his son's carted off where he couldn't keep an eye on them. Some Novak men liked their problems out of sight and out of mind, others liked to have full control of any development those 'problems' made.

When Gabriel finally got into bed, he curled around her from behind, sweeping her hair carefully out the way so he could kiss her neck tenderly.

"What you thinking about?" she asked, it was unusual for him to act like this after fighting with his father and uncles

"You" he admitted, then added "I love you"

Kate turned her head to face him "I love you too, but I'm not an idiot, what're you thinking about?"

"I'll tell you in the morning..."

He knotted their fingers together beneath the sheets as he kissed her, softly, breathing her in and feeling her body relax back into his. Kate moved away a little so she could lie on her back, then she hooked an ankle round the back of his knee to coax him in a little closer, so they could press their bodies flush against one another without crushing her. They only broke the kiss for brief, glancing moments to catch their breath, their eyes heavy-lidded but neither open nor entirely closed.

He was fiery hot and icy cold against her, still cold-limbed and wet from the shower, but already burning for her. One hand curled round her and trailed lightly up her back, just the right distance from her spine to make her mewl softly and arch into him; his other chilled hand came to rest on her thigh, the stark difference in temperature making her shiver as he massaged the inside of her thigh, just high enough to make her start to throb for him again.

Right now was the first time this record-high heat wave they were having this summer was doing anyone any good, because few things made Gabriel happier than an already naked Kate in his bed, willing to let him do whatever he wanted to do to her because it was too damn hot to protest – even if she had been a horny little minx earlier this evening. And right now, he wanted nothing more than to watch his girlfriend beneath him as she purred, mewled and moaned his name.

Clearly, from the way she was pressing up against him, she was long past _needing _this much foreplay. And even though he loved to taste her and feel her writhe beneath him, drawing out her orgasm until she was almost crying for it, he just didn't want that tonight. Tonight, he wanted to love her, to make love to her as he held her in his arms and kissed her.

Gabriel thrust slowly into her and she clung to him, twining her fingers into his hair and pulling gently. He instinctively pressed his nose to her neck deeply inhaling her heavenly scent, and it was already too late when her bitten-back whimper of pain brought him to his senses. As he looked at her, chewing on her bottom lip and quivering, he was all too aware of his knot still swelling inside her.

"Oh god no... no, I'm sorry. Katie I didn't mean to..."

Kate dug her nails into his shoulder as she put a hand over his mouth "_Shut up_" she gritted through her teeth "_And don't move_"

Gabriel did as he was told. He locked his jaw when a tear tracked down her cheek, hating himself sick with the knowledge that she was now bleeding off his knot. When her legs shook and her arms went slack he bit into his own fist with intention of punishing himself, until he felt his stomach lock up and his jaw went slack, his hands dropped down to the pillows and nearly ripped them in two as his knot stopped swelling and he came.

This was wrong, this was so wrong.

They'd been together four or five years the first time they'd tried. Both of them knew that it would be uncomfortable for her the first time she took his knot, so he'd been reluctant at first, but she'd shown him she was ready for it – shown him in what was one of the hottest and most knot-swelling ways he'd ever seen – so of course neither of them had expected what happened. It had been fine to start with, Kate moaning softly about how great it was to feel so filled, then she gritted her teeth a little, but then she got quiet, she got_ very_ quiet... and then she let out a moan of pain, tears springing to her eyes.

She'd told him to shut up then too.

Told him to shut up and don't move.

Same for the time after that, and the time after that.

There had been allot of blood then, just like the last time and just like there was now. And he knew that she'd be cooking all his favorite foods for the next few days, and she'd be openly submissive to him too, 'like a good little house wife' as Balthazar had once commented. Gabriel had him in a headlock for five minuets before he apologized.

When it stopped...

When it _finally stopped_, Gabriel pulled out of her steadily and with more caution than he'd ever done anything in his life. He drew up the covers around her like he was wrapping finely spun glass in cotton wool. Whispering to her all the time...

_"I'm sorry"_

_"Katie I'm so sorry"_

_"I never want to hurt you"_

_"I love you"_

He pulled away from her a little and lay beside her.

Neither of them spoke until morning. Gabriel hadn't slept much at all and Kate still had the same blissed-out look she'd had the night before as she slept, regardless of the pain. She kissed him lightly.

"What do you want for breakfast?" she asked, and to Gabriel it was the signal for the start of her 'good little housewife' behavior because on any other morning she'd smile and tell him to make his own damn breakfast. "I was thinking bacon, eggs, French toast?"

"Please don't" he begged, wrapping an arm round her so she couldn't leave the bed.

"What is it?"

"Don't, don't do this. Please don't do this again" his voice was weak and groggy, but he couldn't take this again, couldn't watch the woman who had openly and repeatedly protested against the suppression of beta's give in to her base instincts.

She knew exactly what he meant and smiled softly "But I want to" as usual, her smile completely disarmed him, like it had the first time he'd seen her and he'd dropped those water balloons on the football players heads by mistake. "Oh, and what were you going to tell me yesterday?"

"I want you to leave with me" he said, with only the barest moment of thought before he said it "We should get our own place". She was completely silent, and she looked a little scared

"What about Cas and Balthy?" she asked timidly

"They can visit" he promised, he didn't like the thought of leaving his brothers any more than she did "But I want it to be just you and me, away from... all that..."

She only thought about it for a moment before she agreed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: I'm rather embarrassed by this chapter, I'm sorry to say it's not up to my usual standard :/**

Cas woke up in Dean's bed at half six in the morning, lying face-down with his hands under the pillow, surrounded by the warm, musky scent of the alpha sleeping on the couch downstairs, and with an uncomfortable sticky feeling in his boxer-shorts. He flushed when he realised what had happened, it seemed he'd managed to get himself off by rutting against the mattress in his sleep.

Deciding that cleaning himself up was better than facing embarrassment, Cas got out of bed and checked for any evidence on the sheets before going in search of the bathroom.

He found it quite quickly – thank God someone had left the door open a little – and he shut the door, stripped off his boxers and dumped them in the sink, and then wiped the worst of the mess off himself with tissues. When he was what he deemed clean, he got to scrubbing the stains out of his boxers with hand-soap.

Then the door opened.

Cas wasn't sure whether he would have preferred Dean or a complete stranger stood in the doorway, but regardless, it was the latter, and he struggled between introducing himself and covering himself up. At his best guess, this was Dean's kid brother, not that they looked anything alike, but it was very unlikely to be some kind of creepy situation where Dean had an under-aged sex-slave hidden in his house.

The kid stared for a while, his eyes focused of Castiel's crotch, before he left and shut the bathroom door behind him. Cas was just about to let out the breath he'd been holding when the kid came back, holding out a pair of boxer-shorts.

"There clean" he promised "better than wearing those too" he indicated to the soiled boxers in the sink

After getting over the initial shock of the whole situation, he took the clean boxers and put them on quickly, thanking him in a quieter voice than he'd expected.

"You're Cas right?" he asked. Dean must have mentioned him.

"Castiel, yeah"

"I'm Sam" he smiled in a friendly way, dispersing the awkward tension a little. "You want some breakfast?" he asked, throwing Cas a curve-ball (so to speak). It was like the kid had done this before, met a stranger that his brother had brought home the night before and calmly offered them breakfast. Then it hit him. He probably had done this before.

"Um... okay? Yeah sure, just lemme get dressed first"

"Cool, stick those in the hamper if you like, and I'll get Dean to give them back to you" Sam shut the door behind him when he left again.

Castiel washed his face and hands before going to get dressed. In the hallway he ran into Sam again, the kid was now dressed with his hair combed. Sam laughed good-naturedly "We'll have to stop meeting like this" he joked, before skirting round him. As much as it stuck a lump in his chest, Cas had to admit that this kid was skilled at dealing with new people.

When he was dressed, tie shoved in his pocket and collar button left undone, he straightened out Dean's bed, unable to leave it messy and looking slept-in.

He left his shoes off so as he crept through the living room he wouldn't wake Dean – who was still snoring contently on the couch, flat on his back with one arm thrown out onto the floor – Sam however was making no attempt to be quiet as he laid the table and started frying some strips of bacon.

"Bacon all right for you?" he asked politely, and Cas nodded

Cas sat down as Sam served the bacon onto a plate and told him to sit down, he waited until Sam was seated and eating before he started himself.

"So you go to the college where Dean works?" he asked

"Uh yeah"

"Cool, what're you studying?"

"Ancient History and Religious Studies" he said, starting to get more comfortable talking to this kid, it felt kind of familiar, like he could relate to him, except he'd spent his childhood covering for Gabriel – and more recently Balthazar – when he was sneaking out or sneaking in late. He also got the feeling that Sam had some previously-tested conversation topics ready before he'd even walked downstairs, just like he'd had some previously-agreed excuses to give his father as to why Gabriel's door was locked from the inside. "What about you? What do you want to do when you leave high school?"

Sam seemed to sink into his shell a little "I don't know yet... I was thinking about studying law?" he said timidly, lowering his voice a little

"You'll have to work really hard for that then" he said fairly, laying down his fork "But – uh – from what I hear it sounds like you already do"

A light blush crept onto Sam's cheeks "Dean mentioned me?" he asked, Cas guessed it didn't happen much then, which made Cas feel a little bad for bringing it up.

"Uh, not really, he said he had a brother when I was telling him about my brothers, but I actually heard about you from my-" he had to stop himself from saying 'sister', it was a bad habbit he'd gotten into, thinking of her as a sister, "brother's girlfriend, when I was telling her about Dean" yes, that wasn't exactly the truth but it saved explaining the embarrassment of when he first met Dean

Sam frowned a little "What's her name?"

"Kate McCarthy, she's a librarian at-"

"Katie?!" he exclaimed excitedly "She's really cool!"

Cas laughed at his enthusiasm "Yeah, she recognised the name Winchester, started telling me about how you talk about Dean all the time" he teased, nudging Sam's arm playfully, not noticing that it was the same thing Kate did with him.

"Not all the time!" Sam protested

"Don't worry, I won't say anything to Dean" he promised, smiling softly. Sam glanced up and caught his eye for a moment, then seemed to freeze a little, throwing his gaze back down to his plate, his cheeks flushing. "So where do you want to study law? I hear Stanford's good, and if you worked really hard you could get a full ride" he suggested.

They chatted for a while, until Dean called drearily from the living room "Cas, your phone." it must have woken him up.

"Sorry, one minute..." Cas rushed to his phone and fished it out his jacket.

The display read 'Novak, Gabriel', which was odd, because the last time Gabriel had called him from his own phone (which he neglected to use, especially whenever he actually needed to contact his older brother) was eight years ago when he finally got Kate to go on a date with him; it had been the middle of the night, Castiel had been about eleven at the time, and although he was happy for his nut-job of an older brother, that half-screamed half-yelled phone call had really been a step too far, even with a giggling Kate telling him to 'shh!' in the background.

"Hello?" he said

"_He's alive!_" Gabriel called to someone else on his end of the line, they responded with a far-off '_I told you_' - it sounded like Balthazar. "_Well hello there dirty stop out, where have you been?_" asked Gabriel teasingly, he had a certain quality to his voice that he'd not heard in a while, it would have made him smile if he wasn't trying to think how to explain where he was last night

"I -uh- stayed with a friend" he said, sounding as honest as he could, because he wasn't exactly lying. He could probably consider Dean a friend... or at least maybe Sam?

Gabriel chuckled "_Yeah sure, whatever. I just called to tell you not to go home yet, daddy-dearest is still cooling down after a rampage last night_"

Cas knew what Gabriel was thinking. Michael Novak could be a venomous-tongued man at the best of times.

"Um, okay... I guess I could go to the library or something, but I've not got any clean clothes"

"_Uh, where are you? I'll get Balth to drop you something off_."

"You can borrow something of mine if you can't go home yet" Dean said from behind him, making Cas give a small yelp in surprise.

"_Your 'friend' eager to get you out of your clothes again?_" laughed Gabriel, clearly he'd heard Dean.

Cas covered the receiver on the phone "No, it's alright, I couldn't ask you to do anything else for me" he said to Dean, before taking his free hand away from the phone and snapping at his brother "What d'you mean 'again'?" he almost squeaked defensively, before confiding shyly to his brother, in front of Dean "We didn't... do anything" he was very aware of the furious red his cheeks had turned. Out the corner of his eye, he saw Dean smirk awkwardly and go back through to the kitchen.

"_What? Really?_" he said, shocked "_You didn't?_"

"It's not that hard to believe" Cas responded, a little insulted

"_Hey, don't get me wrong, I just know what we alpha's are like with a beta in heat, all control goes to hell and stays there_" Gabriel said, sounding confused, but quickly adding "_Sorry, Kate told me; she was worried about you, you know what she's like_"

"Well I..." when Cas thought about it, there was only a moment or two of Dean's behaviour that could be categorised as 'alpha' without a word of doubt, the rest of his behaviour was... odd.

On the other end of the line, Gabriel had gone as silent as Cas, like he sensed his brother was distressed in some way "_We'll talk when you get home_" he said eventually, shocking Cas; it was very rare that he and Gabriel would really talk, normally Kate would give him all the 'talks' he needed, especially since he'd gone through his first heat.

"Okay..." Cas said quietly, leaning on the door frame and trying not to stare to obviously at Dean as he teased his younger brother. He said goodbye to Gabriel and hung up the phone, putting it back in his jacket.


	6. Chapter 6

Cas sat with Gabriel in the small cafe round the corner from the chocolatiers where he worked. Gabriel had already explained about an alpha's instinct to mate a beta in heat even in spite of suppressants, and Cas neglected to mention Dean's odd behavior as he sat and listened. Now they sat in silence as Gabriel scratched a bit of dried chocolate off his wrist as what remained his caramel mocha with whipped cream and sprinkles slowly went cold. Cas dragged his fingertip round the rim of his mug, wondering why it had gotten so awkward all of a sudden.

"There's something I've got to tell you" Gabriel said abruptly, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table

"Okay" Cas said, not releasing the tight grip he had on his coffee mug, because he knew his hands would start shaking.

Gabriel took a deep breath "Me and Katie we -uh-" Cas dug his nails into the palm of his hand feeling the trembling rise to his throat "We're gonna move out... of the house, get our own place"

The tension continued as Castiel tried to loosen the lump in his chest. He'd thought Gabriel was going to say he and Kate had broken up, this news wasn't nearly as upsetting, but still he couldn't quite bring himself to be entirely happy about it. "That's great!" Cas said, not really lying "When?"

Gabriel eyed his youngest brother cautiously, it was obvious to anyone that he was upset about it, despite the smile on his face "As soon as we can. You and Balth can still visit. It's just that me and Kate need our own space, where it's me and not dad who's the dominant alpha."

For a moment, Cas was distracted from the welling pressure at the back of his throat, which was all he needed. "Dominant alpha?" he asked, he couldn't remember Kate ever saying anything about that. "What's that?"

"Uh- well in houses, in family situations mainly, when there are -uh- more than one alpha older than mating age... one of them asserts their dominance...?" he struggled for words "Well, in our house there's dad, me, and Balth, but dad is the dominant alpha because..."

"He's our father?" Cas suggested, kind of understanding what he was trying to explain.

"That's not always the case though..." he said, scratching the back of his head "I think I've got a book on it at home"

"You own a book?" Cas joked, Gabriel was far from the reading-for-leisure type

"I bought it after Kate stopped-" he caught himself before he said exactly what Kate had stopped.

"Stopped what?"

Gabriel glanced at the few people in the cafe, then shifted his chair closer to Cas "You remember a few years ago, just before Kate moved in and me and dad had that fight?"

"Yeah" Cas remembered it very clearly, he and Balthazar – only twelve and thirteen years old at the time – had holed themselves up in their room (before the loft conversion there were only three bedrooms and their father's study) from the fight on Friday night, only leaving once for food, until Sunday morning when they were forced to go to church, and it was obvious that Gabriel wasn't coming home any time soon. Their father had made no attempt to comfort them, and when Castiel asked he'd simply said that Gabriel was 'A great disappointment to the family'.

The fight had been about Gabriel moving out to get his own place with Kate, they weren't married, or even engaged, so their father had gone through the roof at the mere suggestion.

Gabriel only risked seeing them twice in the two months that he and their father didn't speak, eventually the two of them came to some kind of truce and that was when Gabriel had finally moved back in, bringing Kate with him.

"Well, because dad won."

"You said you came round to his way of thinking?" Cas corrected "Which is why he let Kate move in?"

"Not really, no, it was his way of keeping his control over me, and by doing that, he asserted himself as the dominant alpha of the household. I think that's why..." Gabriel ran his hand through his hair, and Cas waited for his brother to keep a hold on himself "Me and Kate can't live together in a house where I'm not the dominant alpha" he said, then took a shaky breath "It's why she stopped going into heat"

"Kate stopped-!"

"Yeah, the book I got said that a beta who's living in a house where the dominant alpha doesn't... do _that thing _anymore, they'll stop going into heat, because – biologically – they're not expecting to be... bred... even if..." Castiel could see the pain in his brother's eyes as he said it, he gave his arm a firm squeeze.

"So me and Balthazar can still visit?" he asked, changing the subject as he pulled his hand back. Gabriel would hate him if he let his brother talk about his problems in public.

Gabriel smiled again "Yeah, just call first" he said, his voice still sounding a little broken. Then his phone beeped. He checked the message and smiled again "You wanna help us pack?" he asked, tucking his phone away and finishing off his drink in three large gulps.

"Your leaving today?" Cas asked, shocked, setting down his empty coffee mug and grabbing his jacket

"Yeah, we are now" he said, leaving the cafe with Castiel at his heels "You know how Kate's old man is at sea most of the year? Well Kate just heard back from him and he says he's cool with us staying in his house until we find somewhere of our own."

Both Kate and Gabriel refused to let anyone else help them move. So instead Castiel and Balthazar sat on the front porch and watched them pack everything into Gabe's friend's pickup. It didn't take them long, and as Kate was securing the tarp over the boxes and suitcases (there was no rain forecast but she insisted and Gabriel didn't seem to have it in him to complain) Gabriel came over and sat between them.

He looked thoughtful for a moment "I'm gonna miss not havin' you two around, but that's not an excuse to come round all the time," the two of them chuckled a little "But seriously though, if dad ever gets to be too much I'm sure we could deal with ya for an hour or two" he put his arms round both of them and pulled them in for a brotherly hug, kissing Cas roughly on the head and doing the same to Balthazar before he pushed him off in distaste. Cas had never really minded that his brothers sometimes treated him like a girl, it was kinda nice... but only sometimes.

They got up and Gabriel kissed Kate before she could hug anyone. She kissed Balthazar on the cheek (her, he didn't mind) and pulled him into a hug. Balthazar hugged her tightly, palms flat against her back and hip, and when Kate tried to let go his grip remained firm "Not done yet" he said, he'd always flirted – and generally acted inappropriately – with Kate "This might be the last time I ever get to hold such a perfect woman in my arms" he teased dramatically, pulling back a little, as if to kiss her.

Kate – who very well knew that he at least _used_ to fancy her – humored him with a peck on the lips before pulling out of his grip and turning to Cas.

Cas turned his nose towards her hair, drawing his arms round her waist just briefly enough to make it seem like he didn't want them to leave. Which of course he didn't, he didn't want them to leave, but he couldn't stand it if they took their time leaving, he just wanted to get it out of the way.

She treated them both with the same affection as she stood in front of them and gave them each one last tender touch, both of them moving towards the soft hand on their cheek – Cas doing so unconsciously, Balthazar to wind up his older brother.


	7. A Message from the Author

Dearest Readers,

I am a little worried about the future content of this story (It may become too explicit) and due to this I have moved the story to a different site, it can be found at a link I shall post on my page ( should it work, I hope it does )

I hope you're enjoying the story thus far, and I do wish for your continued Readership.

Virtual Love, Kisses and Cookies yours,

KScamm (Libzie)


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